Tag Archives: the Footprints Poem

S.A.N.S. Episode 190: By Your Side

One of my former high school students introduced me to today’s featured artist. Tenth Avenue North is a contemporary Christian music band from West Palm Beach, Florida. Over the past two decades, this group ministered to Christians across the United States. In their song By Your Side, today’s video interviews a couple of people who were forced to start over in life following natural disasters.

He who [a]dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence, Psalm 91:1-3.

One of the Psalmist explains how God can be by your side despite being invisible. This divine being has a calming presence to help you overcome extreme circumstances. Like the Footprints poem, God will carry you for extended periods, signaled by one set of footprints on the sand. As you watch today’s vdeo, may the words of By Your Side speak to your heart and encourage your soul.

by Jay Mankus

S.A.N.S. Episode 125: Everything I Need

Kutless is one of the groups I should have featured much earlier, but they were bypassed for other songs that came to my mind. Kutless formed in Portland, Oregan in 1999 and have been rocking and rolling for the last two decades. This longevity has resulted in more than three million sold albums and counting. Besides being Sunday, I chose Everything I Need for the biblically based lyrics.

For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [[d]full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue). By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1:3-4.

While listening to this song for the first time, I immediately thought of the words written by one of Jesus’ disciples in the passage above. According to Peter, the Holy Spirit gives Christians everything that they need for life. Yet, the world is filled with distractions that often separate us from God. The lyrics of Everything I Need parallels the Footprints Poem as there will be days that Jesus will need to carry us. When in doubt, lean on the promise in Philippians 4:13 as with Christ anything is possible.

by Jay Mankus